


Fool's Paradise

by squish_beomie



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M, bastardization of a perfectly decent film, is this horror? thriller? idk, this is not beta'd, very experimental work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:35:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29877807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squish_beomie/pseuds/squish_beomie
Summary: This is just The Labyrinth (1986) but it’s fuckin Shinji (okay I made several changes but still).
Relationships: Hirako Shinji & Reader
Kudos: 1





	Fool's Paradise

Smoke, screams, fallen bodies. She doesn’t have time to process any of this. A grunt to her left. Two squad members fall. She spares them little thought. Any further rumination would leave her name on the plaque right outside the fifth division right alongside theirs. Duck. Dodge. Slash. Repeat. Fall into formation when told. Grieve later. Not a single breath is to be spared. No chance for reprieve. It isn’t until reinforcements arrive from inside the walls and the hollow is defeated, does she collapse.

It isn’t until two days later when she realizes her only friend is dead. 

The memorial is short. Unfulfilling. There is no pomp and circumstance to be had regarding any low-level shinigami. Lives such as that were disposable-are disposable. She is told to clean out her friend's dorm and is sent on a mission three hours later.

It isn’t until one hundred and fifty years later when she meets a medicine man in the rukongai slums does she think to find out what really happened to her friend. ‘It is odd,’ for once she allows herself to truly think. ‘Not even a weapon was left behind. No one else in their squad was present at the battle.’ She listens when the man offers a way to get closure. Never once does she question how the man knew of her deceased friend. She is not skeptical of this man, nor does she decline his offerings of divine enlightenment. The mysterious entity-only known as The Diety had the answers she needed. Present for an unknown period, he had reappeared after around 100 years of complete silence. No one knew of his origins or identity, but his power was undeniable.

When she calls upon him, she half expects him not to appear. When he does she’s not sure what to expect. An amigasa expertly hides any identifiable facial features, and his voice is neutral-almost unnaturally so. He does not balk when she makes her request. “Your acquaintance is long gone. He’s gone where all soldiers go once they are no longer of use.”

She can tell he’s smiling, but she didn’t catch a single joke.

Quick to move on she refuses to give up. If her friend is truly dead, then she will get him back. Once again The Deity is not perturbed in the slightest. 

“Something as precious as a soul’s gonna cost you, love.”

Not a single thought was spared. She agrees without hesitation. Before she can blink she’s back in the outskirts of the farthest Rukon district. To get his soul she must find her way back to Soul Society in 36 hours. It’s comically easy. She almost laughs until she notices the thirty-foot serpent poised to attack. Several valuable seconds are wasted standing still in disbelief. The fight is not long and is certainly not heroic. She gets one good slash, just enough to buy time, and books it. She does not bother to look back. What was once natural confidence quickly turned into shame. An omnipotent deity, one so great his name was not to be uttered, surely would not be so daft as to give her such a simple task. Her escape from the jaws of death left her rattled. She notices herself shaking. Survival instincts kicking in once again, she hides in the underbrush nearby until the adrenaline wears off. She realizes she’s covered in scratches, but they’re easily healable. Her priority is finding food and water. It isn’t until she digs up a few tubers that she notices that it’s way darker now than it should be at this time of year. The winter solstice was still several months away. Not one to waste time musing, it is chalked up to adrenaline. She resides to falling asleep in some underbrush and trying again tomorrow.

The next morning she sets out to walk. It takes her three hours to realize that she’s passed the same tree four times. She wonders how The Diety was able to warp her perception. The fifth time around, she sees a child. Sure that this is a test she resides to walk past him. There is no time for trickery. No time for thought. The creature masquerading as that child is a threat. Something to be ignored. Naturally, it knows this and stops her. “I’m very hungry, miss. Spare some food?” Not wanting to provoke it, she throws it his way. The predatory gleam in its eyes fades. She knows she’s done the right thing. In a voice completely different from the previous one it continues “I’ll give you a hint. Go left.” Desperate to understand the truth, she tries to poke and prod, to inquire about The Diety. “I’ll give you a hint ma’am,” it parrots, the predatory gleam returning to its eyes “go left.” 

She does not question it further.

For several hours she continues to walk, but the sun remains right in the middle of the sky. At this point, she fully understands that the deity is warping her perception of time. She once again tries not to think too deeply. She does not want to consider that this is all a trick. She does not want to think of what will happen if she fails. Where she will go. She pays no mind to her quickening heart rate, the trembling hands, or the overwhelming feeling of being watched.

Eventually, the air clears. She feels wind coming from a distance, and it appears as though she has reached a cliff. The eyes watching her feel stronger now. ‘Surely I am not meant to jump.’ Her efforts to soothe herself are futile. The longer she stands the closer the eyes feel to her. If she is to escape the feeling she must jump. Deep within her heart, she knows. Taking a deep breath she walks closer to the ledge. She takes a deep breath, braces herself, and-

She’s in the middle of a crowded market. It’s still midday. The outer walls of the Seireitei are clearly visible. As soon as she makes the observation the sky turns dark. The deity is sending a clear message. The true dangers always appear at night, she must make haste.  
Cautiously she continues on her way. She revolves to suspend her disbelief, walking on eggshells until she reaches her dorm. Not wanting to feel disappointment, she squashes the feeling of hope blooming in her chest. Oddly, she makes her way to the barracks with no issues. Nothing seen or heard is out of the ordinary. Something is wrong. Apprehension turns to confusion, then panic, then anger. She risked her life, re-opened the wounds of her friend’s death all to be played for a fool. She blindly placed her faith into a charlatan, only to be let down when it mattered the most. With insurmountable disappointment, she gives up. The deep throbbing in the base of her skull is left for another day. ‘I’ll have to find some way to explain my absence,’ she muses the next morning. There is truly no way to know how much time has truly passed. She hopes her appearance is explanation enough. Before any plan of action could be made, a knock on the door. 

She regretted her mistake almost instantly. Something was wrong. She had been duped. Raw terror replaced the euphoria she had expected. Standing there is her friend. No wounds from battle, no signs of aging, just as carefree as he was the day they had disappeared. The throbbing in her skull returned. No movement. No sound. Just a blank stare and empty smile. “I’m here.” The voice they are using sounds nothing like the old one. “I’m here to walk you to work.” In all the years they’ve been friends, they had never gotten up this early. They never tried to walk her to work. And they had never smiled like that. She knew that. The creature wearing her friend's skin knew that. Not a single time did it blink. The headache grew worse and worse as she stood in the doorway. She claws at her arms and face. It continued to grow more and more excruciating, without any sign of stopping until-

She wakes up in a dilapidated shack.

The lack of running water, the straw roof...she’s back in one of the outer districts. She doubts that she ever left it at this point. Her newfound remorse gives way to a sort of clarity she has not had in decades. To bring someone back from the dead goes against the laws that govern the universe. She now understands this, but why is she here? The powerful energy she feels to her right breaks her out of her stupor. Much to her confusion she turns left.

At this moment it dawns on her. There is no need to deny anything anymore. She knew the truth all along. The initial meeting with the mystic, the illusory tactics, manipulation of time and space. There’s only one person who could-

The Diety is Hirako Shinji.

She can only help but wonder why. The room starts spinning clockwise.

“You think it’s unfair?” He scoffs. “Your friend died as a result of their ineptitude. The most you can do is hope that your own folly doesn't put you in the same boat. Give up woman, besides, there’s not much worse than being stuck here.” 

His voice once again betrays an underlying meaning that she cannot seem to catch.

If he will not answer her questions, she resolves to escape. She does not know how she got up and unsheathed her sword in time, but from the start, she knows it won’t end well. Strangely enough, she isn’t dead yet. Completing patterns of ducking and dodging, weaving around, she has yet to be struck by Sakanade. It does not make sense. She is not a seated officer. She should not have survived this long. ‘How have I not been hit?’ she rolls ‘This is a test. He’s waiting for something.’ 

“There’s something you want to tell me,” At this point, she’s panting. There’s something you want me to know” She’s grasping at straws. Anything to give her a little more time, a few moments to recover, to come up with an escape plan. Freezing, she immediately realizes her mistake. There is no turning back from your fate now, everything is out in the open. 

“Well that’s very well and good. You’re about ta find out real soon.”

And then – swiftly, it ends just as quickly as it begins.

“Everything I’ve done...I’ve done for you,”

She falls to the floor, dead. Cut down before she could process what those words could possibly mean.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr @ zarakikenpapi


End file.
